IOC should also look at sprints in new tests

There’s an important piece of the puzzle that the International Olympic Committee seems to be missing in their plan to retest all the doping samples from the Beijing Olympics.

Most reports note an emphasis on the testing for endurance events, but it seems now there’s enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that a blood-boosting drug like CERA, which is the one being focused on, would also aid sprinters.

One of the revelations of the BALCO investigation was that athletes working with self-styled guru Victor Conte were getting the blood-booster EPO.

American sprinter Kelli White, who later came clean on her doping, said she found that she could train much harder while she was on EPO. American Antonio Pettigrew said he used EPO before, during and after the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he was part of the men’s 4 x 400-metre relay team that was stripped of its gold medal after his confession.

Dr. Dave Smith of the University of Calgary’s High Performance Lab said it adds up that a drug like CERA, which supplies the body with more red blood cells, aids an athlete in recovery during training and allows them to do more work.

“The big thing we work on all the time is if you can get better recovery, you can do more intensity of work,” said Smith. “The more work you can do, especially a sprinter at a high intensity level, the better you’re going to be.”

The difference is that Smith is trying to help Canadian athletes do it the legal way.